Reflections of O.P. Bhatnagar: Indian Sensibilities and Modernism

Abstract

Indian English Poetry has traveled a long road since the times and era of Nissim Ezekiel   the torch bearer of Indo- Anglican Poetry. While a lot of attention and applause has been given to poets like A.K. Ramanujan, Jayant Mahapatra, Kamla Das, and Dom Moraes the academic critics and scholars have been rather lukewarm in studying several lesser known and current poets like O.P. Bhatnagar, Mani Rao, P. Raja and scores of others "unpolluted by the public school morals and stances." In this lineage of New Indian Poets in English O.P. Bhatnagar stands as a distinguished literary figure. His assertion that 'Indian Poetry in English has to be Indian' cannot be overlooked if we aspire to promote Indian Literature. Merely copying and coping with the British Literature is insufficient because Indian sensibility is not suffering with the penury of thoughts, emotions and sensibility and because it has its foundation in vitality and voice of potentiality.